Scarlet Crown
by CharlieBrush
Summary: Leading on from the events of Glass Sword, both sides of the story unfold as our characters fight to reunite and reclaim The Burning Crown. New allegiances are made, and the world at war continues to keep growing. -ON HIATUS-
1. Chapter One

_Scarlet Crown_

 **Cal**

My head thrums, my heart pounds and I feel a cold sensation creeping from my arms up to my heart. I open my eyes and a kind grey pair look back. The deep crows feet beside them crumple at the corners, almost betraying a smile. Sara takes her hands from my shoulders and I'd swear gently ruffle my hair, before silently walking out of the room. A soft click and the door closes behind her. _Where am I?_

I'm Sat up in a bed. Not my own bunk. Not with Mare. _Oh Mare, where are_ ** _you_** _now?_ It's a empty shell of a room, white walls. I'm in Bunker 1. I start to sit up but my body still aches, I groan and pull my legs to the ground.

A loud clang and the door slams open again, Colonel Farley storms in and behind him Julian.

"How long have I been out?" I start jumping to my feet, but my legs begin to crumple beneath me. "What's happening here?" Trying to gently sit back down. "Where is everyone?"

"I'll tell you our side when you let us know what happened out there." The Colonel whips. "The Newbloods are still no use right now, spluttering and stumbling over the details or crying and whimpering in a corner." He clenches his fists and stares over at Julian.

Julian wordlessly walks over and pauses before he puts a hand to my shoulder. With a gentle squeeze, he smiles down at me, like Sara just did. "You're trained for this Cal, keep your head even and we can plan how to counter faster. Just keep calm." _How is he so serene right now?  
_ He kneels down to my level and looks at me just like he used to when I was a kid, like I try to do with the all the little ones here. "In through the nose", he says. "You look at me and you tell **me** everything that happened."

Deep breath. "When we fell I was passed out, I was in and out of consciousness. I remember instinctively trying to melt the bars around my wrists - but, then - then Kilorn was trapped next to me and started shouting for me and that's when I realized he had her."

"Cut it and get to the facts boy." Glancing back to the Colonel he glowers at me, he stands leaning against the wall and drums his fingers against his arm.

"Sit down and let him finish." Julian snaps. It doesn't have the lilting sound of a song, but the words crackle in the air and the Colonel immediately sits. Julian it seems is only wearing a composed mask, underneath he's on fire. Just like my flames that flicker, or her lightning that sparks, when a singer is agitated the controlling just slips in. I've never seen him do this before. _Then again he's never spent months in a smothering prison before._

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to do that." His voice softens and the Colonels body loosens, he shakes his golden head a little and nods. Julian continues "Tactical debriefing or not this boy is the only family I have, I will not let you threaten him." Julian turns to me and pulls from a pocket a piece of fabric, it's black silk, ripped down the middle and frayed at the edges.  
"What happened next?" It's covered in red flowers and golden ones stained red. Splashed with blood. Her blood. I take it from him and clutch it like a lifeline.

"It all happened very quickly, he… my brother ushered a Strongarm over who held Mare by the throat long enough to pass out. The two of them then flew off on a snapdragon with two other soldiers in tow. Eyes probably, guarding the precious cargo." I rub my forehead for a moment and try to think of the details. The crucial details.  
"They were heading south, probably straight for Archeon. Back on the ground he came over to me and said something in my ear before getting back into the royal airjet." I feel myself flinch, I don't want to tell them what he said to me and they don't press it. I can't face saying the words right now, to these two.

"Then the magnetrons, there were a line of magnetrons you see, it was them who had pulled the jet down. They threw us. The whole jet into the air, as far as they could." I pause and wrap the scrap of fabric around my bicep, it'd burn to cinders on my wrist in a day, but it's safe as an armband.  
"Hurtling towards the ground, we thought we were done for, until it all slowed. Gareth saved us and slowed the whole wreckage down just enough the impact almost felt light." He was barely conscious with blood streaming out of his nose when I let him out of the restraints, but I'm not telling them that either.

"When we all crawled out we'd luckily ended up near an old unused undertrain entrance damn near the Iron Road. It was all blocked and bowed in places so I melted the debris and the broken walls while Ketha blew apart anything that wouldn't burn."  
Colonel Farley almost gives me a satisfied nod at that.  
"We all took turns pushing an old train car through slowly. Those too injured to walk were inside and the rest of us pushing on. It's honestly all a blur, but by my count it was three days until we reached the working tunnel entrance. I sat myself down when we started to move on the tracks and must have fell asleep."

I had been exhausted, I remember every muscle burning and my eyes straining in the dark. But my mind wouldn't quiet even though no one said a word. Shell shocked. Now I realize it it's clear, we couldn't speak because there were no words to say. "When was that? That's all I remember before waking up here. Why am I here?"

"By the stars, when there was no signal for days we thought we'd never see you again but you made it back. You brought everyone back." Julian claps a hand to my arm and looks at me with such pride, I'm not worthy of it.

"Kilorn brought everyone back, I just cleared the way." I feel like something is missing from me, my mind can't take charge of myself right now, so I know I certainly didn't do it then.

"Foolish boy. It was **you** pushed yourself so hard you've been out for a solid night and day." I've only just relented and let them bring in Sara to heal something of your body and force you from the sleep."

"We've heard all of this from the others" Colonel Farley sighs. "Those who could talk that is."

"What's more important is what did Maven say to you? Things only you know. What is he doing with Barrow? What did he threaten next for the Gua-"

His words are interrupted by Harrick running in, the wiry young frame twitches and he slides in front of the Colonel. "There was a broadcast! Only flashes intercepted over the wire but I saw images. They told me to bring them to you right away and led me here." Behind him waiting by the door, flank two men I don't recognize, I can't see their faces but they're in identical faded green uniforms. Never matter, I'm sure I'll find myself meeting them later.

Harrick has a harrowed look on his face as he rubs his hands together. An image springs fourth between them flickering like a low flame, a single frame from a news broadcast.  
It makes my stomach drop. I'm feel like I'm going to be sick. Rage. Fear. Everything you could begin to feel bubbles inside me.

My brother, Maven, I can't bare to say his name aloud since I saw him on that grass holding her throat but my mind can't help from weaving it around and around in my head.  
He sits on a throne on a grand marble plinth, but it's not him I'm looking at. Mare is before him kneeling. _Kneeling._ Head bowed to his feet her neck dripping blood and her clothes stained with old blood. Bright light speckles over them, flashes of cameras caught in this one still. One image and I feel like my heart has been ripped from my chest. He would have known this would strike us deep. That. Bastard.

"If they haven't already, no Barrow sees this, understand?" I growl. I'm standing now, looming over Harrick and staring to the Colonel. "No Barrows, no children and not Kilorn. I'll speak to him." They simply nod. I look down, two dark balls of fire are swirling in my hands, growing in ferocity and creeping their way up my wrists, I can't control it right now and I don't care.

"I need to find the rest of the mission volunteers, and I need to talk to them now."


	2. Chapter Two

_Scarlet Crown_

 **Mare**

" _I gave you my word I'd let them go... never said how I'd do it would be completely safe.  
Let's just say, I had them tossed aside like the scraps they are.  
What do you have to live for now?  
Maven"_

I crumple up the note in my hand, they appear every so often. Slick little taunts from "the King". I have no idea how long I've been here but they just slide under the door while I sleep, maybe because he's too much of a coward to face me.  
 _Or is it more torture of another sort?_ Leaving me alone now to only wonder what's going on outside.

Once I feared being alone more than anything else, but in a strange sense now its calming. I had this grand plan but it only flew us into disaster. When we failed I handed over everything I had to bargain with. _Is there anything more I could have done?_

The cell is a small diamondglass cube to match my shackles but all I can see are the white inner walls. I feel like I'm being watched sometimes, the skin prickling on the back of my neck while I close my eyes, or maybe a hint of a whisper caught from below. Its not complete paranoia, I'd bet this entire little prison has glass like some interrogation room. I can't see out, but anyone can see me.

Its when the door opens I see the thickness of the walls, and a long clear, sparkling spiral staircase below. The cube must hang above in a large airy room, but I've never been awake to see it. I was brought back here with a hood over my head.  
It only opens when my guards bring in food to me. Well throw the food at me is more accurate. Thick white gloves, large white helmets with this silver visor and regulation Elite jailor uniforms and yet they still are in and out as fast as their stocky legs can carry them.

The sonder has been reduced, they have refined their perfect technique even further, short sharp blasts that leave me lucid now but so weak not even the tiniest of spark can issue from my fingers.  
In a way this is worse than always being out of it, if I wasn't here I could be away in a dream right now. Narcery or Notch, curled up with my family, my mother holding me again. Cal loosely wrapping an arm around me again while we sleep. A tiny moment of mirth as Ada recites fairytales she remembers reading lifetimes ago around a fire.

My mind wanders as I look around the room again, there's empty space in the center but every corner tucks away a piece of my life now.  
One has a pile of these crumpled pages, balled up and thrown at the wall. I don't keep them pressed and hidden away like they're prized anymore, a tiny part of me hopes he sees how little I value his words.  
Across from it lies a bundle of sheets. A mattress would be too much for them to give, but at least I'm allowed a cover to hide under when it feels like it could be night. The other two hold a small glass block that acts as a table, when there is food, and thankfully a small bathroom area for the ablutions. I tore up the end of the sheets to act like a curtain for that corner, knotted into the rings for cover. No one has ripped them down yet, no one wants to ogle the little lightning girl thankfully.

Suddenly I feel a wobble in the floor, someone walks up the stairs and taps at the entrance. Just one little knock. This hasn't happened before; I don't know whether to cower in the corner or race as close as I can to the door. I can't tell if I'm Mare, Mareena or any of the other personas right now. I keep still, crouched in between the fight and the flight.

A tiny green stone rolls in under the gap, it oddly wiggles and stops dead right in front of my fingers. I pick it up and a shiver trickles down my spine. My earring. Its flimsy metal back feels sticky under my fingertips. Maven practically ripped them all from my ears along with my silk scrap when he took me prisoner. I never thought I'd even see one of them again.

I turn it over in my fingers as something different slips under the door. Its the same paper as all the rest but the inky shapes on it are thick. Silver colored, they're spattered droplets dancing over the page. They tremble as they form rough words;

" _You can die right here an attraction in his zoo, or die out there working as a pawn in my army.  
Something tells me, little slave, you and I both want the same man dead.  
Think on it."_

They lie still only for a few moments before flying off the page, a ball of liquid it slithers through cracks in the hinges and leaves me clutching only the empty parchment.

Mercury.

 _Evangeline?_


	3. Chapter Three

_Scarlet Crown_

 **Cal**

I wish that I could say he had snarled at me. Walked over to the crash site and scared me with his ferocity - but I can't.

When Maven sneered in my ear his jibes and his taunts, it was with such delicate satisfaction that I had felt hopeless. His face was clammy and pale with darkened eyes, like the boogeyman in a scary story whispering a curse.

 _There's a big difference between a little brother overshadowed and a young man who's stepped completely into the darkness._

"I could pretend it makes me sad to have to let you go… "He had chuckled, as I struggled against the bars. "Though you see… I'm actually starting to enjoy this chase, brother." A contemptuous grin. "Looks like I've just captured _your little red queen_ though."  
He'd fiddled with the bloody silk in his hand, just torn from Mare. "Checkmate?" He'd cackled as he stuffed it into my pocket. Clicking his fingers at the Magnetron gathering before sauntering away.

This is the scene that has been whirling around and around in my head. Only the second time I'd seen my brother in as many months, and he was even more despicable than before.  
It's hard to explain, but even with the destruction, the bodies, that one child dead in it's basket… I hadn't been able to fully connect them as all being down to my younger brother. I could show the world my thirst for vengeance, but still held a shred of hope for redemption.  
When he had double crossed me the first time, threw us into the bowl and jeered us on to die, a tiny part of me could still pretend it wasn't really him. Just a piece of someone else's bid for power. Elara pulling his strings and throwing me to the wolves to gain her own ruling piece of the monarchy. But it's not.

The Whisper Queen is dead now and Maven is still king. A treacherous king. The iron and gold of my father's crown steeped in scarlet, of the innocent blood spilled.

When I walked out on the Colonel and the men in green, Harrick had raced after me, but he hangs back a step now, walking behind. We're starting to crest the hill to the barracks complex and it's raining. It falls cold and hard and sizzles, extinguishing the flames from my hands. Walking into building 3 and my frankly murderous rage is calming now.  
I can hear the quiet peace of the early evening. There are gentle scuffles from the rooms I pass. It's too late for anyone to be in the mess hall, and too early for sleep. People are…relaxing? Or at least trying to. They deserve it. Hopefully half of them don't know yet what's going on. That we failed.

I turn around and he's still behind me, dutifully standing to attention. "Do me a favor, Harrick?" I try to soften my words. "I'll see Kilorn. Find the other ten for me? Let them know the Colonel wants a meeting tomorrow at 08:00 and we need to talk. They can have tonight." I'm not sure everyone would follow if it was me giving the orders, so I tell this white lie. I'm frightened I'm still seen as the traitorous Silver around here without Mare. He scampers off, his wiry frame barely falling any footsteps on the concrete.

The room I want lies open, slightly ajar and its occupant jumps up the moment I approach. Kilorn has been propped up at a small table reading a book. It's dark blue bindings reflect its Lakelands origin. _Actions of War_. I remember reading similar Nortan tome back in my room, when war seemed more like a game.

"Cal! What is going on? Where have you been?" His brow furrows and he furtively glances around the room, before shutting his door behind me.

"I was hoping you'd tell me a little of that. I've kind of been… out of it." Trying to stay calm, I think to myself, is still the answer. We could both build into an inferno of worry right now but I've got to hold it together. I realize solid trickles of water drip from me, I probably look less than inspiring.

"Pfft" He scoffs. "I'm not surprised. I'd swear panic would have kept me wired and I'd never sleep, but I've barely seen what's happening here. It's all hush, hush and we're the ones who were bloody there!" One glance at my arm and it fortifies his demeanor when he catches sight of it. My makeshift band, my symbol of Mare. "Do you feel numb?" He pauses and I tilt my head before he continues.

"I remember screaming for her to stop, to stop sacrificing herself, to run, to hit him, to shock him… to stop… I screamed at you, I saw her taken off into the sky. I - I saw the _princeling_ speak into your ear and then it's a blur. It doesn't feel real. It feels like she's just down the hall and she'll be trudging with you into the mess tomorrow. It feels like its. Not. Even. Happening." He trails off and looks over at the wall, head bowed.

I pull up another chair and sit myself down, Kilorn responding with the same, still shying from my look. "Okay. Hard facts" I start. "It's difficult not to let the words all tumble out quickly. Deep breath. "My brother has Mare. Now he has her he will never kill her. She is too valuable a prize. That's precisely how he's treating her though, a prize catch in his Newblood hunt. We've intercepted a broadcast and he's showing her off to the world, tied up in chains" I see his eyes narrow and a fist slam into the surface.

I put out my hands, calm down the gesture says. "The way I see it we need a plan of attack, and quick. While we know where they're probably keeping her. What my brother lacks in ability he has always made up for with his head." _His words to me,_ I remember regretfully, now tapping at the book still in Kilorn's hand. "He is a brilliant tactician, always beating me at chess. He will never leave his trophy in the same place for too long. We need to move."

Kilorn nods but still looks troubled. He rubs at his knuckles. "No offense, _General._ " I finch, I get that I'm being very cold and distant with talking about Mare here, but it's not really time to snipe at me. "We're not exactly masters at infiltrating deep behind enemy lines here though, see? Sneaking inside city walls fine, but the palace? You've been trying to cross The Choke for hundreds of years but never made it though the smoky wastes… and that's an all out war zone!"

"Neither have the Lakelanders so I'm not about to run to the Colonel for his brilliant advice either!" I shoot back. "I do know one thing, we need something brilliant, something new… or at least something so stupidly, dangerously, unexpected they'll never see it coming."

He raises an eyebrow. "I'm listening" A glimmer of something devious starts to develop. " _You've_ came up with this master plan then? Worked out this skilful militant espionage in the one day since we've got back?"

"Well… not exactly, no. I've called a meeting in the morning with the last missions volunteers. Maybe it's too soon, but they were the ones most willing to jump headfirst into danger." I swallow. Hard. "I'm just hoping they're willing to do it again. If we start with the ten maybe more will join. So we have tonight to start sketching something together."

"Where _do_ we start then?" He passes me the book, and I take it, flicking through it's pages. There are dog eared corners and deep bends through the spine, worn down through sleepless wear like tonight.

"We're going to need a lot more of these… and maps! Maybe a visit to Bunker 1 is in order, or the storage shelters at the rear." I stand up and start to march out of the room, but I catch sight of the corridor and it makes me pause. Down the hall is the join to the next passage leading to the back. My hallway, my room. Our room.

"Oh sure, no problems. I wasn't planning on sleeping anyway. "Kilorn shrugs and makes his fun, rising he mock salutes me. A crooked smile sits below reddened eyes.

"Thank you." I'm hovering by the door, stepping neither in or out. "I'll be honest with you, I haven't even entered into my quarters yet and I don't want to…" Trailing off I touch the door frame and feel everything start to finally slow. "I'm not sure I even could sleep, it'd probably smell like her, the clothes on the floor, the sheets, the papers…" It's scarcely more than a mumble those last few words.

"Well I'm certainly not volunteering for a night time cuddle, if that's what you're trying to say. Let's get to work,"

He makes me laugh. Out loud, a hearty chuckle that I **never** expected at a time like this. I can see now why he's Mare's best friend, why he's in the Guard. Quickly switching from outright numbed to rage to now this snapping humor. There is tremendous bravery in there masking this predicament. Trying to make light of this mess we find ourselves in now,

Its not just a mission. It's rescuing her. It's personal. It's everything.  
That's exactly why my feet brought me here first. In the weirdest way if anyone understands exactly how I'm feeling, it's Kilorn.

"You know fish boy; I really think we could be friends after this."


	4. Chapter Four

_Scarlet Crown_

 **Mare**

Click.

The white door opens as I bolt awake, pulling my covering around myself. The floor beneath me lightly shakes and creaks. This can't be the jailers again I hope cradling the sonder with them, it feels like they've only just left. My body aches and the lighting strike scars have begun to creep down my arms. They spread a little further each day, the strokes contrasting hard against the tan of my skin.

"Oh good, a light sleeper." It's Maven. He's fully decked out in his dress uniform again, like last I saw him in the square. The medals that crowd his chest seem make the shirt droop more over his frame. He looks paler and leaner every time I've seen him. The frosty blue eyes peer down at me. "I was afraid we'd worn you out earlier." He bows his head to briefly look at my heap of papers, picking one up and straightening it out.

"I hoped you'd wake before we had to part company." He takes a step towards me, and throws it back to the pile. "I wanted to talk since you _obviously_ don't like my letters."

"Are you going somewhere?" I retort. Trying to pull up to a sitting position, but a hiss of pain escapes my lips. The dull aching turns to a sharp twinge as I try to move.

"No, but you are." Maven settles down on my little block and motions down between his feet. "Come. Sit. Let me take a look at you." I don't mean to but I steal a glance between him and the door. If I was stronger… maybe I could hit him with my chains before searching him for the keys. He's full of so much pride he's definitely _personally_ the one in control of my bonds.

He sees my eyes darting though and shakes his head. Something flickers in his gaze and his mouth turns into a scowl. He motions again at his feet and I edge over gingerly. I know what he wants, I rise up until I'm kneeling unsteadily.

"I loathe for you to not be nearby, but things are… vulnerable here." Pausing he pushes the sleeve of my shift gently down over one shoulder. "The High Houses all scramble to win my favour." Slim white fingers softly tracing the raised skin of the brand. Heat floods my body. It burns almost like the night I got it.  
"But really they're working out how best to stab me in the back." He barks out a laugh and slowly draws one hand down the back of my neck, tracing little circles through the thin fabric over my back.  
"You're going to be taken to Ocean Hill." he says, with a hint of humour. Palms splaying then moving the slow caress up to stroking at my hair. "It'd not be my first choice, but that's precisely the point. No one could expect us there. With all my alterations going on, it'll soon be just a shell of a building." Why is he acting _so_ softly? I freeze, my fists are clenched at my sides but I feel my sides start to tremble. "I'll join you soon, once I have all my affairs in order here."

I look down to his feet, I thought this solitary confinement was bad enough, but to be alone _with him?_

"You seem to have surrendered to me… completely, but will you let me save you this time?" He tips my chin back up to look into my eyes, but I twist my upper body, trying to shy away from his grasp.  
He grabs me, and turns me around roughly pulling me into his lap. "Shhh." Scolding me. "Be Still! What do you think I'm going to do to you, Mare?" he asks, drawing out my name. I shiver slightly.

Dipping his head he pulls me to him, it was so long ago, but it feels like the embrace on the river. Ferocious. Insistent. Unyielding.  
His hands curl themselves in my hair and his kiss hungrily starts at my neck, the hot breath ticking behind my ear. Nipping at my skin, it travels up to my lips, crushing them against his passionately. At least an icy version of passion, I take my chance.

Quickly he releases me with a shove, and I thud back down hard against the floor. Maven snapping up himself and storming to the door.

"Still such a fiery temper." Turning back he puts a finger up to his lips and draws it back silver tipped with blood. I'd bit him. Nipping hard at his lip with all the strength I could muster.  
"My little Red tiger," he finishes in a whisper "you'll certainly be quite a challenge to tame." The door slams and he calls out from behind it. "Don't worry about moving, I'm transporting the whole cell!"

The next few hours pass in a blur, I hear clanking and whirring from all around but my ability strength is far too low to feel any of the machinery pulse behind it.  
I wish I could push my hands up and leech the power from the air but I'm the machine has left me still trapped in this prison. As they move it, and me.

The noises all start to make sense as my stomach lurches. I feel the familiar pull from below, a rush of pressure to my head and I'm thrown, banging into the glass wall. _They're flying me to Harbour Bay!_


	5. Chapter Five

Scarlet Crown

 **Mare**

It feels like hours, but its probably only been minutes. Staring at the four walls and pushing myself ragged. I'm weak and dazed from the encounter with Maven, but that doesn't stop me from relentlessly tugging at the rings on the wall. The glass remains holding firm though as I pull and wrench with all my weight behind it.

They still sting at my flesh with every heave but I bear through it, this might be the closest I will get to the open air… and there's still the door to tackle after the chains. Then whoever is guarding me outside. One last great heft and I feel myself slide to the floor, panting, holding back sobs of frustration. I will not cry.

I remember the tears welling up beneath the bowl of bones and having Cal's warmth soothe me between the bars, but there's no comfort here. I need to stop trying to break out. _Just let go. Let yourself go._ There's the trigger, the switch somewhere within me I'm struggling to find again.

It starts slowly, a gentle trace along my nerve endings, the tingle singing down my spine and the hum of the aircraft beginning to sing in my ears.

I close my eyes, screwing them up tightly in concentration then loosening again, no focusing I tell myself. _Let go_.

 _Escape. Spark. Freedom._

I'm special, I try to make myself believe. Fire can't melt diamondglass, but lightning burns hotter than any flame, and there has never been anyone else like me before. Maven has miscalculated leaving me alone for so long and I just need to set it off.

In through the nose, out through the mouth.

Everything stops and there is a clear, still silence.

Boom. The sound crashes overhead. My eyes fly open and I look down at my hands. Nothing. Then what? Who?

There's another loud thud outside and a muffled scream. The noises continue as my cage shakes. A series of great clunking, ramming, bashing knocks sound and echo through the compartment. A fight? My heart is thumping in my chest and I'm straining at the restraints again. _Escape._ _Escape. Escape,_ rings in my ears.

A colossal clang resounds through the room as I see the door fly off and strong hands hurl it out of the way. The intruder looms serval heads above me, skimming the low ceiling with his great skull. The huge hands reach for the chain rings and shatter them above my head. Razor edged glass pieces showering the floor.

He takes a huge clunking stride towards me, and on instinct, I take a step back. Throwing up my hands, and the tiniest flicker of sparks issues out. A pitiful hiss and it fizzes off. Oh god that was pathetic, I'm going to die.

A chuckle and I stop dead in my tracks. My killer is laughing at me? He smirks, flashing a crooked mess of teeth, and cocks an eyebrow. "Power up later, _princess."_ A sarcasticsnicker. "Getting you out of here first."

My eyes widen as I scan over his figure. Thick arms bursting out of a red-orange sentinel uniform, his mountainous neck a thick mass of muscle holding up a strong shaven head. He holds himself like a raging bull, the rippling beef of a Strongarm.  
I've seen him before, but last time barely holding onto life, bleeding out from a wound by his own hand. The victim of a merciless Merandus in the arena.

Offering out my wrists he snaps each manacle, and I can't help but sigh with relief. One more tug and the bands at my feet fall to the floor too. I'm free.. of this stage. I look down a his hands, they're smattered with silver blood, heavily smudged over his knuckles.

"The guards?" I ask hesitantly.

"All dead." Another toothy smile. "We're flying auto. Put this on." He's not exactly wordy, but I guess you don't have to be brainy when you have brawn like this. He pulls from a pocket a small bundle of fabric. Black and stretchy it unfurls in my hands to a thin tensile hooded jumpsuit, it's like Cal's flight uniform but more elastic.

I look up and try to motion to the door but he just obediently turns around. "I won't look." He bends down and with one long reach picks up a large bag just outside, it was leaning by the torn up door frame. He fumbles with it while I get changed.

Getting out of my bloody shift dress feels glorious. It falls to the floor, a crumple of rags, as I push my legs into the suit and with one long zip pull it over my chest. It's like silk, but without the fuss of those bustling skirts and girdles. I'm surprised to feel a smile twitch at my mouth, I guess after prison any little satisfaction is magnified.

I turn around and the strongarm, _Can.. Cantos was it?_ It feels like a million lifetimes ago I watched that First Friday… pulls out a large pair of scissors and a handful of three thin iron rings.

"Whoa there big guy, I thought we were saving me?" I cry out while he just shrugs at me. As much of a twitch as the bulging shoulders can shrug that is.

Twirling a finger he motions at me to turn around myself and I cautiously oblige. A quick forceful tweak at my head and I shout out before hearing a noisy snip at my ear. Shaking my head I feel my hair falling around my chin, skimming the bottom of my jaw. I look down as he drops a thick handful of it down at my feet, all my silver tipped ends litter the floor. Hell more than half my tresses lie on the glass.

"See? Disguise." Cantos orders, as he pulls the hood over my ears, unexpectedly gently resting it on my head. "Put these on too." He hands over the rings and I see they're large hinged bangles. Directing me to my neck and wrists he pulls down his collar and shows me a matching set. I follow and slip them over the raw skin. I must be looking up questionably because he just nods with a "you'll see" cock of his head.

He steps out of the cube and I hang back a moment, diving under the paper stack I scramble for the little gem. I find my sea green earring that I hid under there and slip it into my ear, I wouldn't leave without this.

Outside the prison, looking in it looks so miniature, my little room. The inside of the jet isn't like the blackrun, it's much smaller but similar in construction. Hollowed out to house the little cell, just empty black walls. I gasp, three thick sentinel clad bodies pile on one side of the aircraft. A puddle of silverblood pooling at their heads. Wincing I look over at Cantos.

"Weak western Strongarms" He kicks at the pile. "They weren't Carros like me." A prideful puff of his chest. "Pilot was just a little Telky. Didn't see me coming."

Walking away from the mangled pile of battered figures I spy into the big sack he was carrying, I pull out a large canister and give it a tentative sniff. A strong burning acrid whiff stings my nose. "Fuel? Can you drive this thing? Wait…exactly how far are we going?"

A hearty laugh echoes in his chest as Cantos looks back at me. "No, silly girl. We head back _down_." A decisive point earthbound. "She'll catch us, but first we hide all this." He yanks the top off the container and sloshes it over the wall next to him and the walkway to the cabin, heavy hulking steps walking over to the front. "When it hits the ground." The motions a big circle. "Boom!" He's seriously enjoying this.

Stepping around to the other side of the glass cell I spy a large, long black box. It's like a military chest but theres something starting to slowly seep out of it. A dark silver red colour I feel a pit sink in my stomach as I approach. Sticky on my shoes I feel myself almost tiptoe over and delicately pull the heavy lid up.

Yet another chunky body lies slumped over, enrobed in silver stains through the sentinel uniform, but draped under his cold arm lies a girl. I feel sick as I start to lean down and touch her hand. Soft brown freckles dot over her olive face and her eyes lie peacefully closed like she's only sleeping, but the skin under my fingers is cold. I feel a tear roll down my cheek as I think of the baby in Templyn. Whoever she is she was just a servant like me, the red servants uniform familiarly swathed around her lifeless form. Walsh looked like this too, when she fell.

I feel a vast hand touch my shoulder and give it a little squeeze, looking up rewarded with something of a comforting gaze back.

"You." Cantos lifts the girl and walks her into the box, gently placing her over my sheets before coming out again. "And me." He shows no such respect with the man, just tossing him out of the box, before crushing the wooden crate under his feet. "No one will look for us, if they don't think we escaped. See?"

I nod. Whatever is happening it's a lot more thought out than my escape plan. it doesn't matter about the clothes, just the number of burnt out corpses. A tiny shred of anger rises though my body though as I think yet another little red girl had to die to take my place. How many people need to be sacrificed to save me?

I thought I had made the final choice when I surrendered to Maven. I guess I'm not out of the game yet. Another pawn in another army like the note said.

"You ready?" I'm getting used to his direct speech, it's nice, no mincing on words or playing games with me. Surprisingly this is another Silver I'm starting to like. Or maybe I'm probably just a little biased since he's freeing me after all.

"Soon. When we're over the fields" he points out the back window to the skyline speeding past us, a whirl of blue and green. "I smash controls, pull the back door and we jump."

"Jump?" I question in disbelief.

"Yup. Jump."

I glance up at the cockpit, the sprawling front window and down at the distant ground below. A network of hills veining over the terrain. A large yellow field of corn fast approaching across the horizon. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be then, big guy. Let's go."

It all happens really fast then, with one clumsy stride, footsteps slamming to the metal floor. He reaches the slumped pilot and with a sweep of his fists over the console, he crushes them in a mess of wires and steel. A jolt and I feel us plummeting, gravity pulling like it pulled me in that falling tomb before.

Next the peeling back of the rear of the hull, it falls apart in his hands like flaky pasty and screeches as it scrapes along the exterior, thrown from the plane. Freezing cold gusts blow in through the hole left behind.

"See you down there." With that he's gone, gracelessly treading through and zooming out of my view.

Stepping forward I feel my body shiver, my heart fill with the hollow cold. Glancing at the metal rings that hang on my limbs I look down to the swaying crops.

"This seriously had better work."

I jump. Diving from the jet, my arms forward plunging out like I'm throwing myself into the Capital River headfirst.

The cold air rushes past me, through my fingers, whipping my hair around my face as I fall.

For the first time since my eyes left the group struggling on the blackrun, dragging me away from the two halves of my heart… _I feel alive_.

Closing my eyes above me I hear the swell of clouds bursting, a thunderous boom rippling through the sky. A storm is brewing.


	6. Chapter Six

_Scarlet Crown_

 **Cal**

"I just spoke with the Colonel." I look up and it's Farley leaning in the doorway. She's wearing loose fatigues, draped large over her figure and her hair is slung up in a messy knot on her head. It's early morning and she looks less than her soldierly like self. "Since you last spoke Command isn't authorising any rescue manoeuvres."

"I don't care what Comma-" I start to shout and rise out of my chair but she shushes me with a raise of her hand and points over to Kilorn. He's slumped over the table beside me, fallen asleep in a pile of technical books we pilfered from the Lakeland post. I walk over to her and continue in an angry whisper. "Command doesn't order me! Or anyone else who hasn't sworn themselves to the guard! When I work out what to do WE are leaving ri-"

My mouth starts running ahead of my mind, I don't even know who 'We' are yet, who would be in a fit state to go out into the field? Or would even want to go on an unauthorised run?

We've been reading for hours, cramped hiding out back in this storage room in the main barracks, and dawn is just start to peak it's red tips from the windows out .

She cuts me off again with a hand on my arm and a stern crinkle of her eyebrows.

"I didn't say no one could go." She lowers her tone. "No one can officially go under the banner of the guard. The way they see it the loss of one of their figureheads and unit leaders is a tremendous deficit." I start to speak but I see she's not finished with another less cutting look. "But! A very public martyr - with the riots, and the war on, is bringing in able bodies faster than we can sign them up. They're content to leave her - because…"

"She's helping them in another way." I finish, sighing angrily. Command whoever they are, sound little better than Maven in my eyes.

"You need to give them something else." she pulls from a pocket a crumpled up thin piece of tracing parchment, it's a large hand drawn copy of a technical map of Harbour Bay and it's circling areas.

"Pardon?" I sputter, as she unfurls it and places it over the doorframe.

"I know for a fact teams other than your own have been going after this." She points at a circled square on the map. "This is a large manufacturing terminal in New Town and more importantly one of the biggest news broadcasting relays in the eastern sector. Our own technology in that department is crumbling under the constant demand for news from us after the death of the queen."

I nod. I'm starting to see where Farley is going with this. She crosses her arms and absentmindedly strokes one palm across her stomach. I see a rough stitched square over the wrist of the shirt and realise why it hangs so large, it was Shade's. Gisas original Barrow patch jobs are distinctive, a little touch extra she puts on for her family. Farley's bright azure eyes fail to hide the darker blue bags forming beneath them, she has a glowed sheen of sweat and looks a little sickly even.

Out there somewhere Mare's unique uniform probably lies crumpled or burning in the palace, but I try to push it from my mind.

"We need some more bodies to go in there and help liberate further tech supplies, more to the point whoever goes could also have access to the intel they would need for a rescue mission." She rolls the paper back up and extends it to me. "Maybe you could join this?" A pause. "Now?"

She's being very cagey in case anyone higher up could ever be listening, but the message reads loud and clear. Take who you want, start to do what you need but first start slow under the guise of getting the command mission done.

Once we do them a favour, and prepare ourselves a little more, then we can go out and do what we need to get Mare back. It's a big task.

I take the paper and nod a thank you in reply.

"I'll handle that meeting in a couple of hours, since I definitely can't come with you." She pauses and strangely stops to think a moment before looking back at me. "I'll talk to everyone about where you're going and we'll start to plan a better public strategy to propose to command… a better one than throwing their own lightening girl to the lions." I flinch as she starts to walk away. "You'll find more notes on the other side. If you help get the parts and we give them an alternative, we can go in there with an army."

That's the spirit, I think to myself closing the door. I look down at my watch, better wake up Kilorn, we've got to get boots on and get going before dawn if this is a supply run.

* * *

"Hold still! I can't get the numbers on straight if you keep moving your head."

Kilorn is twitching in place as my hand struggles with the end of a thin paintbrush. It's funny I can take apart a cycle engine with my eyes closed no problem, but this is tricky. Then again I guess the cycle isn't moving around while I do it.

"Remind me again why we couldn't just bring Harrick for this?" he huffs, stilling for a moment before loudly tapping his feet on the rickety steel floor.

We're rushing through the tunnels on a single car undertrain towards New Town and he's on edge. I feel it too, the same buzz of fear and exhilaration at the start of every run or mission. I just hide it much more effectively.

"We need to keep this quiet, try getting in with a way the other units haven't tried. You know that!" I chide, he can be such a whine sometimes.

"Shut it! _You_ know I was being sarcastic." He grumbles back, crossing his arms defiantly.

"Oh give it here, before I silence you both!" We quickly jolt our heads to the other end of the carriage at the same time.

Cameron Cole had sat silently the whole ride so far huddled in the corner, curled up like a grumpy child dragged along, but she's on her feet now beckoning I pass over the brush.

She'd groggily rose from bed this morning, nearly punching me in the face when I crept in to her bunks to wake her, but she came along wordlessly when I said what we were doing. I wanted to keep this small, but I thought we'd need a powerful new blood and preferably someone with techie insider information, so there was only one real choice.

It's hard to remember sometimes she's barely 15 when she's blinding someone with the force of her power, or twirling around the little blade she's taken to carrying. She stands almost as tall as me, switching places to paint Kilorn's neck with the black dye we "acquired" outside of Haven on the way here.

"You two. You're like squabbling children." she admonishes, placing a firm hand over the back of Kilhorn's neck to keep him still. He's being gripped by the scruff like a little kitten, and looks very uncomfortable. I find it hard to stifle a laugh and she glares at me.

"You need to get the place. New Town - NT." She expertly flicks the first two letters into place quickly. "Then your indenture settlement, see?" She pulls down the neck of her shirt to show off the full letters spanning her neck. "We need Assembly. Repair. Large. Manufacturing." She punctuates each word as she maps out the thick lettering stretching over Kilorn's throat.

"You're a little older than me, so lets start your number off with 17…" she mumbles as she finishes off. "Lets just hope no one notices I'm in the wrong sector."

Kilorn shifts a little as she speaks, her hand now drifted resting at the top of his back. Finally noticing Cameron flinches and pulls it away quickly, almost blushing.

"Come on then, swap places." She points at me with the end of the brush like it's a sword. "Lets hope the ink doesn't just melt off you."

"You look like you've done this before?" I question, sitting down. I know from working on the assembly lines all her life she's used to intricate machinery too but this was more artistic than generator parts. She quickly sets to work and has half of the numbers scrawled before I can even swallow, she's far less keen to touch me.

"Before you're 13, you're too young to tattoo."

I raise an eyebrow, that sounds overly compassionate.

"Oh not what you're thinking, nothing nice about it." She scoffs. "You're still growing the most before then and it would stretch out the letters, they don't like having to come in contact with us more than once. Unless you're being whipped." She barks out a laugh, but I see it's to hide a the merest hint of pain showing through. She has grown more into the group since the jailbreak, but still remains the most guarded. "We'd take turns painting each other everyday until we were 13. My brother would alw-"

She's cut off as the train lurches to a halt, throwing us all into a heap on the floor. The open dye tin splashing over my knees and covering my hands.

We decked ourselves in plain rags before heading out, so the grime, grease and soot will hopefully help with the cover. Dipping my hands into the spreading stain on the floor I ruffle them through my hair until it sticks together messily.

Kneeling up, I set my hands alight to burn the excess off of them. Then roughly wiping them on my trousers after the brief blaze has extinguished. There's an acrid plastic smell from the burning paint.

The other two spot what I'm doing and start to do the same with their appearance, pulling themselves up to stand.

"Guess this is where we stop then?" I motion to a man hole cover resting in an alcove above. "Should we see where we've ended up?" I check the rolled up sheet again, it's crumpled and stained now in my pocket. Farley had marked out the end of the power tracks on the under train and the entry point a few buildings over to where the rest of the team should be hiding out. A ten man squad equal Nortans and Lakelanders, they'll be decked out in the same disguises and waiting in a warehouse. Hopefully, that is.

Pulling myself up I squint into the light. There's a loud hum of voices a few streets away, it's angry shouting but I can't make out anything of the words. Ducking back down into the darkness for a moment I extend an hand and help pull up Cameron. She wrenches her arm out of my grasp quickly, hissing "I could have managed myself!"

I just shrug and help up Kilorn, who uses his feet to grapple at the side of the tunnel and vault quickly out of the hole.

Quietly we creep around the nearby corner and I can spy people milling out of a nearby street, running in droves from the main thoroughfare. I've never stepped foot into this area of the outskirts of the slums before, but I can quickly see the roads lie in a system of numbered squares arranged by size around larger squares. I signal behind me that we're taking a hard right, thankfully the way most people are heading so we don't look out of place.

Passing through in front of a row of dingy shop fronts we pass a run down used electrics window and I stop in my tracks, with the other two roughly bumping into me with a loud thud. Inside people are crowded around one large flickering image roughly projected onto the wall, video screens would have been to expensive to use here. They resort to the older technology for the Reds I think to myself sadly, but am transfixed by the image.

A newsreader is silently talking to the camera, if there was sound it is lost swallowed up in the chaos around us and the thick glass. I can't keep my eyes off the words scrolling across the bottom of the screen though. Reading them quickly I feel this familiar ache in the pit of my stomach start to form. I swallow hard and stiffen as I realise what this could be.

* * *

 _A_ _n air jet has crash-landed between Haven and Orienpratis_ _,_ _the wreckage site on the border of the Great Woods and Beacon Farmland.  
_ _Further_ _reports are of it colliding with_ _a_ _grain silo_ _it's decent and killing a number of farm animals_ _.  
_ _A recovery effort succeeded this morning after bad weather, a_ _lightning storm,_ _hampered earlier attempts to reach the crash site.  
_ _It has be handed over to a team of Guards from the Regent State to look into the crash.  
_ _The apparently modified royal jet flew into the structure_ _heading on a direct bearing from_ _Archeon_ _heading to Harbour Bay reports are suggesting_ _._ _The Palace is yet to confirm ownership.  
_ _The identities of those on board have yet to be released.  
_ _It has been_ _established as carrying five crew and one_ _passenger,_ _one of them Red_ _and the rest Silver.  
_ _Security officials say the recovery effort was still tough however because some bodies were badly burned in the crash and were scattered across a wide area of the woods_ _._


	7. Chapter Seven

_Scarlet Crown_

 **Mare**

I feel like I've been hit head on by a cycle. Least I assume what that might feel like. My throat painfully thuds and my arms are aching with a mass of sharp stings. Blinding pain. I struggle to breathe as I feel my chest tighten and blood start to pool in my mouth, sputtering weakly I try to open my eyes.

Coming to a little more I feel rough hands suddenly crush down over my collar bone and a warm clasping sensation creeps over my torso. It's a warm embrace, its healing me, but it feels different than what has happened to me before. If Sara Skonos coolly slides the pieces of your broken body together, then this is like warmly patching them with hot mud. It feels so strange, the heat inside my flesh working together every muscle, every cell.

Feeling better I can start to feel fat droplets of water hitting my face, cold rivulets nipping against the warming feel of my healing wounds. Falling through the air the oncoming storm had quickly broken and started raining. Just as I was starting to lose myself in the sensation of falling the three metal rings had horizontally whipped through the air, wrenching me along with them. It had saved me from the full impact of hitting the field as intended, but roughly bent and even broken all the points where they'd been linked around me.

Opening my eyes slowly I see a pair of murky blue-green ones staring back at me. They rest in a pasty white face, the shade betraying pale blood if I'd ever seen it but the skin is also flecked with many deep freckles, and the ruddiest scarlet cheeks. Red-blonde hair flops, dripping, splayed around broad shoulders. He beams a wide toothy smile as soon as I lean up a little.

"Damn it! I had money bet that she'd not make it." a male voice calls from behind me, laughing.

My healer rests back and shouts in reply to the figure behind me. "Aye, sure ya did. Bloody doubting bastard." His accent is a thick one I can't place as I feel his warm hands leave my chest and grasp my hands. I flinch as he moves to start to mesh together my broken wrists.

I can clearly smell smoke, and trying to look around I see two large plumes smoldering not too far in the distance, the rapid flames surviving against the rain.

"I'd not have failed." I hear a familiar low rumble from next to me. Turning my head sharply to that side I see Cantos curled up in a heap a little ways away from me. His legs are disgustingly splayed out at funny angles but he's doing little other than wincing. "We did good." he adds.

Glancing around we're nestled in a narrow patch of land, in a stretch of flat between tall shady woods and the the winding hills of undulating cornfield. It's starting to get dark.

A great mess of terrain, looking back to the handful of days I remember in school, the Regent state doesn't hold the same riches as the King's. Crops are crops, wherever they're placed.

"Quiet!" Another shriller voice rings out from behind me and I know exactly who it is, even before she walks around into focus. Evangeline.

The redhead helps me pull me up with a strong grip. He stands much taller than me as he walks over to Cantos. Laying hands over the Strongarms thick legs as soon as he'd seen I was standing up alright.

"I knew it would be you." I mutter while rubbing my sore neck with one hand.

Strolling out in front of me Evangeline's silver hair is sleeked back, it swishes haughtily in a high ponytail. Even soaking wet she manages to look put together. She stands leering over me with her trademark smirk, sharp teeth tensely ground together. She's wearing the same jumpsuit as me - as all of us I notice. It's odd to see her without the usual heavy metal adornments littering her body.

Her dark eyes rake over me and the smirk transforms into an all out scowl, painted mouth glossy with pristine lipstick.

"You seriously need to practice your landing." I grumble brandishing one metal link around my wrist at her. I don't expect the reaction this provides though, as quick as a shot her fist solidly connects with my face.

"That was for my brother." she snaps. There's a large silver ring adorning her finger and I feel where it has hit me. My cheekbone is throbbing, split, blood trickling down my neck.

"And what about my brother?!" I spit out, smearing my face with my sleeve, recoiling. "He's dead. Yours killed him." My heart still feels hollow saying the words, Shade seems long buried but still here both.

"Hah!" A sharp, cruel laugh. Evangeline enjoys my misery, and relishes her news. "We fared better then, Ptolemus is recovering nicely. He wasn't there sadly when we brought down your little airship, but I was. You'd know that though, since it was your band of freaks who hurt him at the prison."

By the sheer numbers silver power might always win, I think to myself darkly. Free of the sonder my mind is still slowly clearing, at the mention of them I miss my team. I miss my family. I miss my life. Even if it was a constant warzone. I miss Cal. I know I surrendered, but it makes me angry I can't get it all back.

"Have a go then Samos. You'll be wishing for death when I'm through with you." I growl, thin sparks issuing from my fingertips. Crackling I watch them fizzle out in the rain, then quickly reignite. It still pales in comparison to the threat I could have launched at her mere weeks ago.

"You don't talk to me like that now." Her eyes narrow and she takes a step towards me. My hands sputter as the lighting dies. "There's no Princes here to look after you. So you watch your mouth… Little. Lightning. Girl." She looks me dead in the eye and roughly pokes at my cheek punctuating each of the last three words. With a casual wave of her hand I feel my bangles fuse together and join thickly around my neck. Another master, another collar.

"You join us now or you die." The band around my neck tightens slightly. "Trust me, I can pop your head right off before you even try to escape this."

I sigh, my life has been threatened so much this past few weeks it barely registers anymore. I nod and she backs off, the bindings loosening. Only slightly.

Finished with Cantos the skin healer steps over to me, hands outstretched reaching for my new face wound. Evangeline cuts him off sharply though. "Leave that there." She clicks her fingers and he stops, shyly sticking his hands to his side.

"I'm sorry, lass. Orders are orders." he does sound apologetic.

"Now that's over with, you can go meet the rest. You gave me an idea long ago, at least, I wanted my own merry band of freaks. As Silvers, we've only been taught how to fight other silver powers. You're all… unexpected. It's a delicious opportunity for surprise." She claps her hands and motions to the reluctant looking redhead again. "Besides, I love the thought the king is distraught right now without his little toy."

The man quickly stands to attention. "I have other things to go deal with. Jarrod, walk them to the unit base. We'll take the dragon, there is still transfer to be done." She takes one last look at me. "Watch her."

The other man behind me, the one who had laughed as I came to, quietly walks into view behind Evangeline as she storms away. He could remind me a little of Maven but the similarity stops at lank black hair, that's dripping scraggly over his face. A white patch of strands peaks out at the front. He wears long black gloves and keeps the dark suit hood pulled up high. He has olive colored skin, but from what I can see it's filled with pock marks and deep wrinkle lines. He looks at me and politely nods before following Evangeline.

The pair of them move a little way away, Evangeline confidently leading, she motions to one of the nearer hilltops. Whizzing to her insistent power a snapdragon silently zooms through the sky, before the two of them quickly hop onto it and retreat into the heavens. I breathe a sigh of relief. She won't hurt me, much more, while I'm useful. Who knows though how long that will be, time hasn't mellowed the vicious hate between us.

"I had one of those too." He motions to the thick neckband. "Don't worry, wee one. She'll take it off when she knows you're not gonna run. Follow orders and you'll be fine."

Further away, Cantos clumsily sits up and starts ambling over to join us.

"As she said, I'm Jarrod. You'll have met Cantos, and the freaky shite with the sick sense of humor is Gaeli. Don't mind him, he's alright too."

"It's erm… Nice to meet you." I feel oddly awkward now. With my real captor gone this is almost like touching freedom, and I barely know how to act with these two now I'm not in mortal danger. "Thanks for fixing me up. How did you all end up with Evangeline?"

"There's no exactly a big story here m'love, we're outsiders, stray red's she picked up on her…" he suggestively winks. "Clandestine travels." I almost stifle a laugh. Its a darkly funny image, Evangeline illicitly creeping from town to town collecting Red's from under Maven's nose. Maybe she beat him to some of the names on my list before I got there. I wouldn't put it past her, cunning and well connected.

"When the choice is land in prison or join a secret army, it's no a hard one. Well apart from Cantos, he's just seriously pissed at those high house Whisper bastards from what I can tell." I nod, I think know all this but I don't want to interrupt the flurry of words Jarrod is throwing at me. He does speak very fast.

"Had a First Friday fight with one and barely made it through by all accounts, couldn'y take the shame of defeat so stormed into a rematch. The lad made him smash his own head to bits…" He glances over at the Strongarm following behind us and lowers to a hushed mumble "He's got it all goin' on up there, but even after being healed, the parts of his mind that control speech, are all wired up wrong." He knits his eyebrows together and I steal a look at my recent comrade from our escape.

I can understand the allegiances Cantos has made now, a vendetta fuelled by being ruined by any Merandus would force you against them in the hidden machinations of this civil war. He must be so kind to me because he knows by now I killed Elara. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

"I'm M-" I begin extending out my hand, but I'm quickly cut off and heartily patted on the back instead.

"Don't worry, everyone knows who you are, Bolt." He points up to the still darkening sky, as a flash of lightening cracks overhead. "Quite the impressive show after over a week out of commission. I'd swear sky was clear before that plane came down." A brief pause as we walk along, weaving through the narrow path. "Welcome to the Ingots. That's what we call ourselves, and you'll probably meet the rest later."


	8. Chapter Eight

**Four months later…**

"Stand back!"

She wrenches open the thick steel door with a wry face and a gripping motion at the air, as he just heaves a sigh and follows behind shrugging and rolling his eyes.

"Genuinely Evangeline, do you need to do that every time? You could knock."

"Where's the fun in that, Gaeli?" she tosses her sleek hair behind her shoulder and flashes a smirk. "When you have power, you use it."

He sighs again, the woman is more than exasperating. Nearly a year he has followed her every move, shadowing the groups leader as she plotted her way around Norta.

"Let's just get this over with then. Jon still freaks the hell out of me."

It had all started for Gaeli not too long ago, but seems more like an eternity. It had began with Jon. The grey man who whipped into his life and turned it upside down.

'Get on the next boat to the Far Western Kingdoms' the red eyed man had urged, showing up out of the blue one day. He had promised an adventure with a lifetimes worth of excitement, talking about meeting Kings and Queens and overthrowing governments - but Gaeli hadn't been interested.

The moment he'd promised Gaeli with an outstretched hand that the answer to living with his 'abilities' lay on the other side of the great sea though however hadn't been able to get the idea out of his head. He'd fought with who he was for as long as he could remember, and had few friends left in the world because of it.

'There'll be no one to miss you when you go…' the voice in his head murmured, and he'd listened to it.

"Close that will you, _dear_." Evangeline's sharp voice rings him back from his thoughts with a jolt and he flicks his arm to roughly close the metal door back in place. Maybe she's right, brute force is fun sometimes. He quashes a smile before it really forms.

The door leads them down a dark corridor, stone walls crumbling at the sides as the damp earth around them creeps through the brickwork. It's a bunker built low in the side of a hill in the Marsh Coast, he hates that covert meetings are always in dank, dark places.

The boat had been a dark, dank place too. Nearly a month on end hiding in the hull of a great clunking cargo ship, cowering together with the other people who'd foolishly paid for this dingy transport across the sea. He nearly thought he'd never survive it, feeling violently seasick day after day made him contemplate just giving up and leaping to his death over the side. He'd been saved when another passenger crept through the darkness and laid warm healing hands over his face. He'd been surprised by the power he'd felt coursing through the strong digits.

That had been Jarrod, the other Ingot who started out on Albion, but further North in the cold wastes of Scotia. They'd realised they both had abilities and bonded from then, sharing stories about how they'd both had visits from the Grey one, telling them to get on this ship and join a great war.

At first Gaeli was sad he wasn't special, wasn't the only one with this great soothsayer leading him to promised glory, but then he realised he was more glad of the company. That and a man who could heal your wounds was the best travelling companion you could ask for.

Absentmindedly he nervously pulls his hood down, he looks over to Evangeline, striding in front of him.

"Do you still have the gold?" Evangeline tuts and beckons him to pass the small pouch, hand outstretched.

"Of course I bloody do… _Dear."_ She scowls and then breaks into a sharp laugh. Travelling so much together they've developed this funny sort of bond, but that's a whole other story. He feels like he sees a side of Evangeline no one else does, that's probably just wishful thinking though.

They walk through another archway, its littered with branches worming their way from the earth outside, great thick mangrove trunks twisting outstretched tendrils. Gaeli feels a shiver as he catches sight of the Grey one, looking up and staring with those scarlet eyes. He'll swears he'll never get used to them.

"Jon." They say as they enter. The room is empty spare a rusty table and some mismatched rickety chairs and stools.

The man nods as they approach and gives an unsettling smile as Evangeline lays the coin purse down on the table.

"Good. As soon as I put that where it is needed, things will change again. Better."

 _Couldn't make that any more vague could you Jon?_ Gaeli thinks to himself darkly. They'd been doing this for months. Transfers of information for whatever commodities Jon wants in advance. Evangeline doesn't like to hear it but Gaeli thinks he is definitely the man in charge, playing the whole game himself and making every player in this war dance to his tune. "When he says don't attack, we don't attack!" He'd reminded her once, "Seems like there is no other option but listening to Jon."

Gaeli likes to wonder what the other factions are up to, who receives the gold or the guns or one time even the barrels of Delphie wine. Maybe not just things, maybe Jon moves people too, moved like commodities like he was. Maybe someone else has abilities like he does?

Standing in the same room as Jon he feels that "freaked out feeling" because he has the conflicting tear of wishing to run away as fast as he can from his presence, or rip off a glove and touch his palm to the pale ghostly man's skin.  
Long ago when Jon had shook his hand that first meeting he'd seen a glimpse of his own future, pictures of the present and even some very jumbled up pieces of Jon's past. Only directly seeing a mere second and he marvelled at what must be going on in Jon's mind. He'd not been able to loose parts of the images for days, and they'd been intoxicating. It was like a bright, glossy screened advert but straight into his mind, flashes of of him standing in ranks in an army, flickers of him bedding a beautiful woman, diving headfirst from planes and throwing great mountains of metal through the air. But then the images were quickly gone.

It is this, his gift, this curse that makes Gaeli both the most and the least powerful person he always thinks to himself. He is a conduit for power, an absorber of consciousness and abilities through skin to skin contact but only for a brief time. When he touched Jon he received a lesser glimpse into the Eye's visions and they subsided, the same is true every time he touches Evangeline. A few days of slightly weakened metal manipulation and it too subsides. In people without abilities, Reds, he is amused they call themselves here, he only feels their feelings. Imagine merely touching someone who is suffering intense grief and feeling down for days? This is why Gaeli never liked people, they affected him to much.

Evangeline pulls a chair out from the table and sits down, long legs crossing as she leans over to the grey figure. "What've you got for me then?" she purrs. She's confident, and fierce, and violent. When Gaeli brushes a touch over her skin though he feels something different sometimes, a weakness in all the bravado and the bitterness, like she's not that sure what's she's doing sometimes. He'd never utter it out loud though, then she probably would kill him.

Jon sits down too then, barely leaning back and never breaking eye contact as he lowers himself down to the rickety stool across from the silver haired woman.

"I can tell you, as I keep telling you, that now is not the time to approach the firebrands with any deals. Either of them. One is consumed with drunken rage, burning down every state with as much dark fire as the kingdoms have ever seen, and the other is slowly going a little more mad with each passing day. I'll leave you to decide which is which," He almost smiles at his mysteries, at least Gaeli sees a twitch at the corner of his mouth. "You could say they certainly take after their parents."

Evangeline starts to tap her long painted nails dismissively on the table, she hates these vagaries and is only really pleased when Jon gives her useful specific details. Map points, dates, meetings.

"What use will they be soon then? Either no longer a worthy leader or driven insane? I have _the girl_ as leverage. I can use her to make the Guard work with me now" she pauses and Gaeli knows when Evangeline says 'work with' she really means' _work for_ '.

"Or I could escape my contract with the crown and get more power in the city." She looks up at Gaeli as she mentions the contract and he nods.

She is betrothed to the King still, even though he holds no interest in her whatsoever, but she must retain appearances and travel back to Archeon and stay within the palace walls every few weeks. What Maven has been up to she wants to distance herself from the crown. Appearances must be kept though, so he must have no idea she is plotting against him until she holds enough power to reveal her plot. Evangeline thinks this is now, but Jon tells her every time to wait.

In truth, Gaeli hates seeing her leave every time she takes off the Ingots uniform and steps back into an ornate dress. Partly because this leaves him in charge, another Magnetron to tug at the recruits who are still collared. No one else but Jarrod knows he isn't just a magnetron. Evangeline likes playing all her cards close to her chest.

"Not yet." Jon remarks quietly.

"Not yet?" she slams her fist to the table and the rusty legs on every chair and shake a little. " _ **Not yet**_ is all you give me? What else do you have for me? What else can you do for me than riddles and silly gossip I could have found out from my palace spies?" She has been starting to get a shorter and shorter temper the longer Gaeli has known her, fraying at the edges with stress he thinks to himself.

Jon is quietly displeased with her outburst, Gaeli feels flickers of anger without even touching him. "What haven't I done for you? I could call you ungrateful if I even cared about such things. I was there when the Lightening girl was unveiled to the world in chains. Standing near you, _I put her there_ , I told _you_ to tell Maven exactly where they would be, did I not? I told you he would have her briefly trapped within the King's cage and then you would have her but you just had to wait."

He stands up and pushes the pouch of gold into his jacket.

"So now you have exactly what you want, she seems to be fitting in nicely… almost, and still you haven't the patience to wait again?" Pointing slowly to the exit behind them he turns on his heel and quickly disappears down a dark corridor to another entrance. Evangeline huffs and with a motion slams the door shut behind him as he leaves, almost petulantly. Standing up and turning around on her heels she closes her hand into a fist and the table crumples into a pile of metal scraps.

Gaeli resits the urge to try to unravel it out. "Why'd he leave so quick then, you think? Never seen him storm off, you've said worse things to him."

She straightens up and dusts herself off, the scowl slowly replaced by a smirk. "He obviously knew what was coming, didn't want to stay to see it probably."

"What's that then? Your tempter tantrum?" he starts to get her point as she pushes, half shoves him, down into the chair.

"No." There's a loud zipping noise as she pulls the toggle of his suit down. He pushes his hair back from his face, the silver white patch is growing by the day. The more he touches her skin, the more obvious it becomes and he worries it'll start to get conspicuous exactly what they've been up to.

"He didn't give me what I want. So you will." The smirk almost curves into a proper smile as she starts rolling down his gloves. He makes a move to pull her hair out of its tight tail.

He finds her a very beautiful woman.

 _ **A/N Well forgive me! I took a long time, four months really ;-) to be hit again by some ideas, some inspiration - but I'm not feeling very sure about it!**_

 _ **I'm going to try to shake things about a bit and alternate chapters both with both Mare's and Cal's POV and other characters to fill in info like Gaeli here from the second (or is it 3rd?) person. See the new command structure at the Scarlet guard, introduce the Ingots some more, lots of Cal & Maven angst now they still think Mare is dead! **_

_**If things are confusing… or you like them… or it's not very good! or well any thing!**_

 _ **Reviews, comments, questions, message me , follow, poke me! You get the picture :) feedback gives me the warm fluffies to write more.**_

 _ **C x**_

 _ **Note to a Note: If Naercey is post apocalyptic NYC then Alba is the UK and Scotia (if you caught some accent in the previous chapter!) is Scotland. I figured I could draw people further than just Norta. t! I'll expand into what's happening over there too… maybe :)**_


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